Filled With Poison, Blessed With Beauty And Rage (Daminette)

Study

Marinette calmly read from her science book, jotting notes into one of her notebooks. In front of her, she didn't notice the empty seat being occupied. 

"Hello." 

"AH!" she clamped a hand over her mouth, removing it once she got over her shock. She looked up to find Damian sitting in front of her, textbook being flipped through. His emerald eyes looked over her textbook, continuing to flip through his pages. 

"A-are you looking for the page number? It's 397." 

"Oh. Thank you." he found the designated page, reading through it. Marinette took the chance to sneak a peek at his notes. Black notepad, fountain pen - he was fancy. And rich. His handwriting was clean and neat, all straight lines with surprisingly no smudge marks. 

Marinette on the other hand had a page full of sloppy notes. If she'd have more time, she'd probably rewrite them, if she wasn't too tired or lazy. 

"What did you and Bahrenburg start?" Damian asked, scratching a new detail onto a new note page. 

"Oh, uh, we didn't- we didn't quite start it yet. It was awkward for both us, so we kind of used the them to get to know each other," she confessed. Damian let out a 'hn,' turning a page. Marinette bit her lip, continuing to work.

"I think there's some vital information in this paragraph. It's on the next page." 

"Oh, okay." 

They continued to talk about the subject, often getting side-tracked. 

"-Todd is the second eldest, he's honestly fourth on my hate list."

"So... who's first?" Marinette giggled. 

"Drake. The third brother. He's a prude dumpster of coffee and sleep deprivation, and he's the closest feeling to death. He's annoying, nerdy, obnoxious and-" 

"And a basic middle child?" Marinette smirked. She could've sworn she saw a smile curl up at Damian's lips. "Basically." 

"Speaking of which, do you have any siblings? You seem to know a lot about siblings." Damian asked, jotting down more notes. 

"I don't. Having one would be great, but I mainly just have my friends as annoying siblings. Chloe, Kagami, Adrien, Juleka, Luka, Nino, Alix - the main group." 

"That's a lot." 

"Hey, you can't be talking. Collin? Jon? Ashe? Nova? Bart? The entirety of the soccer team?" Marinette counted. "Those are mainly Ashe's friends." she raised an eyebrow at him. 

"Some of them." he fixed.

"Hmmm," she rolled her eyes. "Sounds like you care!~" 

"I do not." Damian glared. 

"Yes, you do!~"

"I don't."

"Do."

"Do NOT." 

"You do!~" 

"Who- Ashe." Damian rubbed his temples at the arrival of his older sister. Kicking up her skateboard, she threw herself into an empty chair, looking through Damian's notes. Squinting through her glasses, she grabbed the lot, skimming over it.

"What's going on here?" she clicked her tongue. "You two flirting?"

"We're studying. I have a girlfriend - Marinette is just a friend."

Ah. That term again. Just a friend. I have a girlfriend. 

"Y-yeah. Just studying. Um, do you know when Nova is available? I have some questions about how she wants the format of the essay part." Marinette cleared her mind, setting down her stack of notes. 

"Hmm... I can talk to her during gym. She's in Photography right now, and they don't allow cell phones in there. Plus it's all dark and red in there, so they're probably dipping photos in chemicals or whatever."

"Thanks, Ashe. I appreciate it."

"No prob." she propped back on her chair, snatching a page of Damian's finished notes. "I'm gonna have to do some changes to some of this when I type this. That okay with you, Dames?" 

"Of course. Make sure you have Alfred read over it."

"I know, I know." 

"Who's Alfred?" 

"He's our butler/family friend/adoptive granddad. He takes care of our family." 

"Oh. That's really nice." 'Rich kids,' Marinette thought. This Alfred figure must be a lot better than ol' Nathalie. Adrien seemed to be exhaling relief after finding out that she'd been imprisoned alongside his father. Alfred must be different. 

"Hey Marinette, I've been meaning to ask by the way. What's that on your wrist?" 

Marinette froze. "W-where?" No, god, please no- 

Ashe leaned forward, letting her chair fall back down onto the floor. Reaching a hand over, Ashe gently poked at the stray marker line on Marinette's wrist. "Oh. It's just marker. My bad. I thought it was something else. I think I need to change my glasses' prescription." 

"Ha, just marker." in reality, Marinette was ready to collapse. That was so close. Hell, if Ashe had looked a tad bit closer, she might have seen the rows of old scars. Having to explain that would probably trigger something. Whether it would be an attack or an impulse to vomit; she didn't want any of that. Didn't want to explain it, didn't want to trigger those. 

"Speaking of which, Damian. I heard they're having the soccer team plan the dance this year."

"Oh my-" Damian threw his face into his hands, groaning loudly. "I thought that the school festival crap was bad enough. Now they're having a group of sweaty, brainless jocks plan the school dance?"

"You are part of the soccer team."

"And so are you." 

"We got so many compliments about preparing the festival!"

"That's because we got the photography team and the theater kids to join us."

"Perks of having a photographer girlfriend and being part of the theater team?"

"Well they're probably going to mess something up!"

"How?! OH NO I SPILT THE PUNCH ON THE SATIN TABLECLOTHS!" 

"Bull-"

"I- I can probably help out!" Marinette butted in. Damian and Ashe both turned their heads in sync, a different expression on both. On Damian's, confusion, Ashe's, excitement.

"That's perfect! Marinette, you know about fabrics and stuff, right?"

"Yes! I do! I have some-"

"You're hired!" 

(t.b.c)

Quick note: I am getting out of the Daminette fandom-

To be honest, I don't really know how I started shipping this but-

The dynamics don't really work out to be honest and the fandom is toxic. Marinette is favored over Damian who had gone through worse-

I'm honestly tired of it. No, I AM NOT QUITTING OR DROPPING THE BOOK. I'll probably stop posting Daminette works and focus on other ships, like Kagami and Chloe and Damijon. Daminette is nice, but my GOD, the fandom pisses me off.

Sorry about the delays, one of the reasons being the toxic fandom, the others being writer's block and school. Hope you enjoy! New chapter should be out by October 17th, depending on how inspired I feel to write. 

Thanks for reading.